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Cleric motherlode in Secrets of Strixhaven for my B01 Standard Orzhov Clerics Deck

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

First, to answer a couple of questions. First, is my Cleric deck dead? Absolutely not! I just need to get some wind back in my sails to get these posts out in a reasonable time. Second, why no posts since April. Well, after Lorwyn Eclipsed came the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. And it featured absolutely no clerics.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the latest In-Universe set, Secrets of Strixhaven. There are a whopping seventeen Clerics in the set! Better yet, fourteen of them are candidates for my Orzhov deck.So, the question is now, which ones can I include in my deck and improve it.

Ascendant Dustspeaker
Eager Glyphmage
Ennis, Debate Moderator
Emeritus of Truce
Honorbound Page
Inkshape Demonstrator

Ascendant Dustspeaker is not necessarily a bad card but there are so many better alternatives for its cost. It could have a home in some kind of exile deck but I don’t see it in the current incarnation of my Clerics deck. Pass for now.

Eager Glyphmage is in the same boat except that it could be paired with Ennis, Debate Moderator, to create a token engine. But doing so would require another component to make Ennis’ effect repeatable or a different card offering a similar effect. It’s a lot for not much tangible benefit over the current cards.

I’d love to put Emeritus of Truce in the deck but the challenge is that this is an aggro deck depending on creatures. I expect that there will be too many times when I will not be able to get him prepared to take advantage of his companion spell, a classic that I would love to cast over and over! Maybe worth a try to validate the theory!

Honorbound Page faces a similar challenge: The value of the card lies in being able to repeatedly prepare it to leverage its companion spell. As much as these new cards look to be fun, I don’t see them fitting easily into this deck.

Inkshape Demonstrator is an interesting card. I enjoyed the Repartee mechanic during the pre-release event. It reminded me of Magecraft in fact. At a cost of Colorless 3 pipWhite pip, the +1/+0 is not worth it but lifelink might be. If nothing else, it is worth a try!

Joined Researchers
Owlin Historian
Quill-Blade Laureate
Scolding Administrator
Snooping Page
Soaring Stoneglider

I’m not sold on Joined Researchers. While the card should be easier to prepare over and over, I’m not sure that giving my opponent three cards over and over is a good thing . Again, this might be worth a test or two to see.

Owlin Historian is not a great card for this deck. It simply does not fit well into the deck. Another pass!

Quill-Blade Laureate is another preparation-type card. It suffers from the same challenge as most of these cards – How to repeatedly prepare it within the context of this deck?

Remember how I said I liked Repartee? Well, I actually played a Scolding Administrator in my pre-release event and found it to be a fun card. Menace and the ability to grow certainly fits well in the deck. And being able to move its counters to another creature when it dies is another plus. Look for this one in my deck!

The same can be said for Snooping Page. Its Repartee mechanic again fits nicely into my deck. The card draw is another plus albeit at a cost that needs to be managed but less so than usual given that the deck includes lifelink. Another candidate for inclusion but at the cost of what?

Spiritcall Enthusiast

The last Cleric to consider is Spiritcall Enthusiast. The potential is there but the need to have a token enter makes it more difficult to leverage in this deck. It will sit on the sidelines for now.

Before we wrap, we should talk about a few other cards.

The first is one that I immediately want to put into the deck: Erode. For White pip, you destroy a creature or planeswalker but at the cost giving its controller a tapped basic land. I”ve replaced my two Get Lost removals for two copies of Erode. We’ll have to see if giving my opponent a tapped basic land each time I kill a creature or planeswalker proves to be too much of lopsided cost but it’s hard to argue with a cost of White pip.

Before we wrap, there is one card that I played during the pre-release that I wish was a cleric. Stirring Hopesinger was good fun and it’s too bad that it’s a bard. This one would have been an immediate include with its flying and lifelink abilities and a simple way to trigger its Repartee ability.

Here is what the deck looks like at the moment:

Deck

  • 3 Murder (J25) 467
  • 4 Essence Channeler (BLB) 12
  • 2 Inkshape Demonstrator (SOS) 21
  • 2 Authority of the Consuls (FDN) 137
  • 4 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113
  • 2 Rosa, Resolute White Mage (FIN) 555
  • 2 Minwu, White Mage (FIN) 26
  • 3 Aerith Gainsborough (FIN) 4
  • 3 Sheltered by Ghosts (DSK) 30
  • 2 Bitter Triumph (LCI) 91
  • 2 Elegy Acolyte (EOE) 97
  • 3 Wanderbrine Preacher (ECL) 41
  • 2 Scolding Administrator (SOS) 224
  • 2 Erode (SOS) 15
  • 2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269
  • 2 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
  • 9 Plains (THB) 250
  • 3 Scoured Barrens (IKO) 254
  • 7 Swamp (THB) 252
  • 1 Valgavoth’s Lair (DSK) 271

Sideboard

  • 1 Enter the Avatar State (TLA) 18
  • 2 Pest Control (BIG) 22
  • 1 Virtue of Persistence (WOE) 115
  • 2 Nowhere to Run (DSK) 111
  • 1 Seam Rip (EOE) 34
  • 1 Roaming Throne (LCI) 258
  • 2 Exorcise (DSK) 8
  • 1 Day of Judgment (FDN) 140
  • 1 Compassionate Healer (TLA) 13

And with that, time to go see what the next set has in stock for our Clerics!

Revamping My B01 Standard Orzhov Clerics Deck with Lorwyn Eclipsed Additions

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

I was really happy to return to a Universes Within set. This was after the two Universes Beyond sets (Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender) that capped off 2025. The original Lorwyn sets precede my involvement with Magic. However, I had heard a lot about it from those who played back in late 2007 into early 2008. I looked forward to this set.

I was also optimistic that there would be a good number of Clerics in the set. My B01 Standard Orzhov Clerics deck has languished in the competition basement when it comes to the power of decks since the last rotation. The last two decks did little to help. There were no clerics in the Marvel’s Spider-Man set. There was only one Orzhov cleric in the Avatar set. Slim pickings!

Lorwyn did not disappoint, bringing with it seven new Clerics. Even better is that they can all work in my Orzhov deck. Let’s take a closer look:

Wanderbrine Preacher could have potential if only because it fits nicely into the lifegain strategy of the deck. The fact that it gains me 2 life every time it taps is not bad. It is very much in the vein of Compassionate Healer but gains an additional life but loses the scry. I may simply need to play it instead of the healer and see which one benefits the deck more.

Moonlit Lamenter is also worthy of consideration but as a card draw engine. Unfortunately, this engine requires counters. It will only work once unless you have a mechanism to add more counters.

Twilight Diviner is a card worthy of a strategy based around your graveyard. Surveil helps drop some options into the graveyard. If you can then play them, you get yourself an additional token copy. Not bad but I don’t see it as a good fit for this clerics deck. It’s a pass for now.

Adept Watershaper
Reaping Willow
Sun-dappled Celebrant

Adept Watershaper is an interesting choice. Giving tapped creatures indestructible, giving them some protection after they attacked or were tapped for something else. I just don’t see what I would pull out to get it in. This may be a case of try it to see if it can deliver but I’m not optimistic.

Reaping Willow fits neatly into the Lorwyn set. However, it doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the current deck. The -1/-1 tokens go against the lifegain strategy.

Sun-Dappled Celebrant could be a threat on the board. Convoke certainly makes it easier to cast but is that enough? Vigilance is always welcome. However, you will likely need additional resources to ensure it stays on the board long enough to have an impact. And the cards I have in the deck now offer more cohesion than I think this will offer.

All in all, there are a few cards to try out but nothing that will again help elevate the deck into a truly competitive one. But the set does come with one creature type that could make a further difference. Lorwyn has 16 Shapeshifters and you know what that means: 16 more potential Clerics! This might be the motherlode!

There are still eight cards to consider when staying within Orzhov colours. Of those, my top three

Prideful Feastling

The one with the most potential is Changeling Wayfinder. Mana fixing is always a good thing. Prideful Feastling fits into the overall lifelink strategy and the hybrid mana certainly helps by improving mana options. Nameless Inversion and Crib Swab are interesting cards – Shapeshifting Instants! Having played Nameless Inversion in some other decks, I’m just not share that Kindred non-creature cards are worth it though.

After all this, here is the deck that I’m going to take for a spin for the next set. Essentially, I’ve replaced the Compassionate Healers with the Wanderbrine Preachers:

Deck:

  • 3 Murder (J25) 467
  • 4 Essence Channeler (BLB) 12
  • 2 Grand Abolisher (BIG) 2
  • 2 Authority of the Consuls (FDN) 137
  • 4 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113
  • 3 Rosa, Resolute White Mage (FIN) 555
  • 1 Starscape Cleric (BLB) 116
  • 2 Minwu, White Mage (FIN) 26
  • 3 Aerith Gainsborough (FIN) 4
  • 3 Sheltered by Ghosts (DSK) 30
  • 2 Get Lost (LCI) 14
  • 2 Bitter Triumph (LCI) 91
  • 3 Elegy Acolyte (EOE) 97
  • 2 Wanderbrine Preacher (ECL) 41
  • 9 Plains (THB) 250
  • 7 Swamp (THB) 252
  • 2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269
  • 2 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
  • 3 Scoured Barrens (IKO) 254
  • 1 Valgavoth’s Lair (DSK) 271

Sideboard

  • 1 Enter the Avatar State (TLA) 18
  • 2 Pest Control (BIG) 22
  • 2 Virtue of Persistence (WOE) 115
  • 2 Nowhere to Run (DSK) 111
  • 2 Seam Rip (EOE) 34
  • 2 Roaming Throne (LCI) 258
  • 2 Exorcise (DSK) 8
  • 2 Day of Judgment (FDN) 140

For those looking for this usual review of my B01 Standard Orzhov Clerics, my apologies for the tardiness. Life was a bit crazier than usual and motivation went out the window for a bit… Look at the positives. This means that my assessment of the next set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, should be out faster. That’s the plan at least!